Vicka’s Return?

Around the 1st of January, large crowds of pilgrims once again gathered on the main street in Bijakovici. Vicka, after an absence of nine months for health reasons, returned to the stairs of her blue house to give witness! This year however, we will have to wait until March for her to resume her normal rhythm of speaking three days per week. By then the treatment of her shoulder should be finished. In these last nine months, Vicka has suffered more than usual, but she knows how to remain happy in all situations, even those that are apparently negative.

Recently I had the opportunity to meet her and discuss the latest events with her, as well as her suffering. I was wondering why God would allow nine months to go by without Vicka speaking. How many thousands of people would have been able to be touched by her beautiful testimony and have returned to God? Why did God allow the long silence of this excellent witness? What advantage was there in keeping her away, trapping her inside her house, neither able to move, nor able to meet the crowds from all over the world who called for her? Of course it has to do with the incredible fruit of suffering, when it is offered to Jesus. There is no better example than Vicka. She does it with such ease. When I asked her about how she manages to stay positive she had many good points to share!

She said: “You see, if God allowed that absence, He knows why, therefore I’m happy. He knows how much I love to bear witness to the pilgrims, He knows that the pilgrims need to hear the messages; then if He still chooses for me to make a sacrifice and bear this suffering instead, I don’t doubt, this plan is the best one for us all. That’s why I’m happy. I know that everything He does is a blessing. I am in His hands in order to serve Him. He can do as He wishes and, whatever He does, it’s His choice and I always thank Him. He sees so differently from us! We judge too easily on the outside. We have our own thoughts about things and we want God to act according to our wishes. But no! You see, we should always be happy with what God does, even if we have wanted something different. This brings heart-felt peace. I’m happy to be with my family, with the pilgrims or my friends, but I’m also happy when I’m sick. The important thing is to say YES to His ways and to have total confidence in Him. When you have confidence, you have peace! But this doesn’t happen overnight. We learn it day by day and we have to work in our hearts. We have to pray! God always wants to give us that peace, but we have to pray and to open our heart in prayer.”

The war rages on

I asked Vicka how was Baby Jesus when she saw Him in the arms of His mother on Christmas day. Was He asleep? “No!” She said. “He was completely awake. His eyes completely open!” Then I asked, “And His Mother, I suppose that she was radiant with joy?” To my question, Vicka lowered her head for a second and responded, “Yes, she was joyful; it was Christmas! But, she’s a mother, so even if her heart aches with pain, she hides it in order to show happiness to her children. But for me, since I’ve been seeing her for a while, it shows.” (I asked this question because of Mirjana’s surprising reaction to the apparition of Our Lady on December 2nd.)

I continued to ask Vicka, “I understand that the Mother of God suffers enormously, seeing the large number of families breaking apart today.” “Sister Emmanuel,” Vicka responded. “Today there are not only families that are breaking apart! It is EVERYTHING that is breaking!” On my way home from Vicka’s house, I thought about writing an “Open Letter to the Blessed Mother” and to share here some parts of it so that we are all encouraged to pray:

Dearest Mother,
You have said it yourself, while looking at our hearts; your heart is filled with pain. Know that our hearts are also aching when we think or your immense sorrow, after all that you have done for us in Medjugorje!

I do not know, and no one knows, what Mirjana saw last month that caused her to cry for so long after the apparition. But I implore you, don’t abandon us! Don’t leave us alone, battling with this world without peace and undermined from inside. Do not cease your marvelous apparitions that happen every day when the sun goes down, because so many children await and cherish your arrival!

Don’t withdraw your hand too quickly from us! Look around, there are too many young people who wander, are blas_(c) and without goals! There are too many couples who split, too many children who are force fed with emptiness and are thirsty for love, too many people who are victims of solitude and fatal blows. You can’t leave us in the heart of this battle, dear Mother, even if we have responded so poorly to your call and have let all this suffering cover us, even though we had your messages to teach us how to live!

Your Son spoke to us of the fig tree that the owner wanted to cut down because it didn’t bear fruit. But the gardener interceded. “I will dig around it and give it some manure.” Dear Mother, please give us another chance, multiply your graces! We’re so hard-hearted and rebellious! You can’t let hatred lead the world and poison so many innocent children as early as primary school. Look into your maternal heart: can you really let your children rush into the road of death that is on display on every screen! How could you leave us at this very moment when in the West, the rates of perversion, depression and suicide increase everyday?

You know the situation all too well! But you listen to sincere prayers and, for even one single child who cries out, you employ all the power of your intercession before the Father of Mercy. Mother dear, we beg you, do increase your interventions on our behalf and ask our Father to allow you to remain in Medjugorje for a long, but a very long time! Call among us pillars of prayer and of holiness, and chase the evildoers away!

For the first time in your messages, you said that you fight for us as a mother fights for her children. You wouldn’t have to fight if there wasn’t a war raging! So, please listen to the clamor that comes from the front line and to the uproar that the enemy is making! See the anguish of those who have not yet taken up the right weapons, and please continue to visit the earth without tiring! Mother dear, come to our aid!